Since the last update, things have been actually really rather busy. Back to normal you could say, from the point of a Shippie. Mostly just a lot of work and effort has had to go into university work but besides that I have attended a forum in Hamburg, finally managed to catch up with some friends in Hamble and help a few students throughout Europe by sharing my experiences from my paper/bachelor thesis.
So Hamburg, what a nice place and what an utterly brilliant maritime museum. Countless impressive models and just a fantastic collection showing almost all aspects of ships and shipping. A tour of the museum (where I joined among others the designers Mark Mills and Jason Ker) only added to the overall experience. I also attended a day long forum where different topics where discussed and I had the chance to catch up with many friends and acquaintances. Some of those there (in addition to mr. Ker and mr. Mills) where John Corby (for whom I have spent many hours sanding an upturned hull doing a short placement), Simon Rogers (who has designed two boats with which I have achieved some of my best results in sailing), Mike Castania (ORM & skipper during the victorious Baltic Sprint Cup), Jocki Christophers (CYM) with whom I enjoyed many good times in Cowes on the water and in the pub, Doug Schickler (ST-yacht, I worked with him over the summer) and many others. The day provided a great insight into the rating offices viewpoint, the designers, the builders, the suppliers and not least the owners. The organisation itself was also very well done and the combination with the annual price giving of the German offshore club added a special twist to the evening (more info: www.iyfh.org/ ).
Back to the UK for an update on day-to-day life. Results are in and the road to graduation in July is still clear: passed all the modules of first semester (easily) and the final formal meeting on the GDP before the hand-in (MEng final project) went well and has given the group confidence in finishing with a quality product. Life at the moment is a combination of attending a few lectures a week, spending many hours on calculations and write-up for the Group Design Project (GDP) and making enough of the time left to work on the design for the Wolfson Unit thought module and the coursework and preparations for the other 3 modules. Luckily I manage to sneak in a night or two off every week to wind down which has also allowed me to meet up with those friends I have outside of university. I don’t have any photographic evidence but I even managed to find fitting baby clothes to give as a present when visiting the newborn addition to the family of some great friends.
It will be another month (5 weeks to be more precise) before the major deadline (GDP) and being able to take a couple of whole days off. NOt much time to think about that right now, finish the work first… And you know what,
Life is still pretty good.
Ciao,
